When do I need a shock absorbing shipping crate? If your product is rigid and damage-resistant, it will likely ship safely in a rigid crate without too much thought or effort. However, for other products that would be damaged if they encounter hard bumps and drops, the safe, cost-effective, time-saving option is to use a shipping crate that is shock absorbing.
You may think your product is strong and rigid, but if it contains sensitive components, they can be affected by jolts and impact. A good example of this is the shock absorbers used on cars. Shock absorbers are critical to a comfortable and smooth ride in a car in the same way cushioning protects the sensitive electronic components.
If you go back about 30 years, shock absorbers in cars frequently wore out and had to be replaced. Now it seems, replacing shock absorbers is no longer much of a thing. Why is that? The main reason is that more modern materials are now significantly lighter-weight and more flexible. The materials themselves are shock absorbing, a truly ideal situation.
So why haven’t modern shipping crates progressed to be lighter weight and more flexible, where the materials themselves are shock absorbing, in the same way as cars? Answer: They have.
The Issue With Rigid, Stiff Shipping Crates
The most common shipping crate is a wood crate. Wood is a hard, heavy, inflexible, and unforgiving material. A certain amount of rigidity is necessary for performance and stacking so the crate can’t be too pliable or it won’t hold up. However, if it is too rigid, all of the transport stresses are transferred through the container to the product inside. Heavy, dense products with no sensitive parts are not affected by the shock that is transferred through the rigid crate.
On the other hand, if the product has sensitive electronic parts, components attached to a piece of equipment that need to be supported in shipment, or the product is made with soft metals, this shock transfer is a big issue. Think of it this way, why do rigid crates often contain foam pieces, foam lining, or have Skid-Mates attached to the bottom? Foam and Skid-Mates absorb shock—they are rigid crate shock absorbers.
There Are More Flexible Shipping Crates Available, Right?
So, what about the more flexible, yet durable materials used in building cars? These materials are polymer-based (plastics of sorts). There are containers made from plastics that have much more flex than a wood crate and are used extensively in some very specific industries. However, they are not easily customizable. Pieces of more flexible plastic must be formed or molded, which typically requires a separate tool (extrusion die) for each piece. This tooling cost escalates significantly with every piece needed. It is simply not cost effective for most companies. In addition, disposing of these parts and pieces when damaged, or at the end of the usable life cycle, is a challenge because there isn’t an easy-to-access recycle system in place for large pieces of mixed plastics.
There are also other varieties of hybrid shipping crates that combine various materials such as wood, corrugated sheets, and plastic corrugated, some of which are more shock absorbing than others. The big problem is that most are not convenient or easy to use. The set-up is like DIY furniture with impossible-to-follow instructions. Taking them apart is just as challenging because the receiver doesn’t know how they went together. Hybrid shipping crates are also made up of various materials, so disposal and recycling is very time consuming.
Any shipping crate can be made to be shock absorbing, even the most heavy and rigid crates. The behemoth of crates is the metal shipping crate. In almost all cases, metal shipping crates have several areas wrapped in foam to protect the parts from the metal.
Foam is the most common option for cushioning sensitive products within a rigid shipping crate. In cases of the most sensitive products, the amount of foam needed is significant. A large amount of foam can be very expensive, is not easily recycled, if at all, and not what we want to see going into landfills.
Now that we have covered the most common options available, we can all agree that it would be a game-changing breakthrough if there was a new option. One that is better, easier to use, lighter weight, more flexible, and sustainable. A more flexible shipping crate may not eliminate the need for all of the foam or Skid-Mates but should in most cases reduce the overall amount needed to accomplish the purpose.
Great News!! Ecorrcrate is a Shock Absorbing Shipping Crate
Ecorrcrate is the industry innovator when it comes to shock absorption. Constructed from 100% corrugated lumber, it is organically shock absorbing and, on average, 40-75% lighter than a comparable wood crate. This video illustrates the difference between the performance of Ecorrcrate and that of typical wood packaging.
Being constructed from a shock absorbing material means that the Ecorrcrate is also highly shatter resistant (nearly shatter proof).
Customers that have tested Ecorrcrates without foam or with less foam have reported higher levels of success in safe shipping. They report that the Ecorrcrate is shock absorbing in every way; meaning, the outside material better absorbs the bumps and impacts experienced in the typical ship cycle.
Could it get better?
When considering a change to a more shock absorbing shipping crate, the material is the #1 consideration. However, if you are going to make a change, wouldn’t it be nice to pick up some additional benefits?
What if those additional benefits included:
- Easier to set-up and break down.
- Safer, no tools needed.
- More convenient disposal for your customer.
- Improved safe delivery performance.
Ecorrcrate has proven to do all of these things. With a 99.99995% successful delivery rate, the ease of disposal in a well-established recycle stream, the convenience of better safety, and sustainable disposal, you and your customer will have a significantly improved overall experience. Oh, and reducing the amount of added foam and cushioning materials will improve your profit line as well.
Let’s get started on your project today, reach out now to learn more.